The Week That Was - August 23 2012

THE Climate Commission launches Critical Decade, International Action on Climate Change, Australian’s have installed the most amount of domestic solar panels and the good news is that Australia has reached mediocrity in terms of its effort of dealing with climate change.

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“I guess I was frustrated at not owning a home and therefore not being able to take advantage of these solar schemes etc, so I decided to get stuck in.”
  - Lee Stewart, Climate Leader in Fairfax Newspaper’s Money section

Check out the highly photogenic Stewart family telling it how it is in terms of making your home more efficient and saving on electricity bills. They graced the pages of both The Age and the SMH.

Our founder Al Gore, told us this week that Australia was playing its part in the global challenge involved in taking real action on climate change. He made his You Tube announcement to co-ordinate with the launch of the Climate Commission’s first report titled Critical Decade, International Action on Climate Change. It essentially tells us that momentum is growing, but more needs to be done to tackle climate change.

The Climate Commission report also told us that of the 90 countries surveyed, Australia belonged to the top 20 carbon heavyweights, contributing a combined 75 per cent of carbon pollution.

We are told that Australians pipped the Germans and the Chinese in terms of the number of solar panels we installed on our homes over the last year. And we did this despite the cancellation of government incentive schemes. And here is a detailed look at Mr Abbott’s plan to put solar panels on a million rooves. Maybe he won’t have to if things keep on pace at the current trend.

And this week in amongst all of the media about of how small businesses are suffering under the weight of the carbon price, several small businesses detail how there is money to be made by becoming more efficient. Like 5K worth of money ….

New research is telling us that tropical fish are cropping up in places that they should not. Do salmon and clown fish get along? I guess we will find out soon enough.

Meantime it is wind farms in South Australia which will attract the attention of the Asian business world, we are told by a recent PwC report which states that for China and Japan Australia will be an attractive proposition for renewable assets.

In other news from abroad, a random phone around tells us that only two per cent of Canadians don’t believe that climate change is real and happening. Someone should tell that to Stephen Harper.

And EU climate change commissioner Connie Hedegaard tweeted "Would be great to have Australia on board on 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," in advance of the Bangkok international climate change talks this month.

And maybe while we are on topic – we all should be aware that the skeptic Lord Monckton is on the way to tour Australia and New Zealand in early 2103. Hopefully the media doesn’t give him the kind of free kick he got last time he was in town …. and actually gets some perspective on the real issues.

Speaking of real issues – time to laugh at them here - and enjoy this week’s consensus that Australia is a carbon role model as the odds are that it might not last until next week.

Adieu ‘til then …